Legal Research Tutorials

Compiled by Kasia Solon
May, 2007

Legal research tutorials are available online and offer a way to acquire and hone legal research skills. This table lays out, roughly organized by subject, selections from the non-profit Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI), Lexis, and Westlaw.

To access the tutorials from CALI and Westlaw, use the links to their respective websites provided at the top of the table. Please note that one must then log in to CALI to access the tutorials.  CALI access is restricted to current George Washington University Law School students and faculty.  CALI passwords are available at the Reference Desk.

SUBJECT	CALI	LEXIS	WESTLAW
Legal Research Generally	Legal Research 101: Tools of the Trade	Basic Research Skills	Getting Started
	Legal Research Methodology	Advanced Research Skills	Finding a Document on Westlaw
	Where Does the Law Come From?	Basic Shepard's Skills Advanced Shepard's Skills	Simple Search Strategies
	Hold'em, Fold'em, Walk Away, Run: When to Stop the Search	Combined Search	Precision Search Strategies
		Retrieving a Document	KeyCite
		Terms & Connectors Searching	KeyCite -- Expanding Your Research
		Topical Research
Secondary Sources	Introduction to Secondary Resources	Secondary Sources Research	Secondary Source Research
	ALR
	Legal Encyclopedias
	Mastering Looseleaf Services
	Periodicals Indexes and Library Catalogs
	Research Uniform and Model Laws
	Using the Restatements of the Law
Case Law	How to Find Case Law Using Digests		Case Law: Basic Searches
	Updating/Validating Case Law Using Citators		Case Law: Advanced Searches
Statutes	Codification	Statutory Research	Statutory Research
	Finding Statutes
	Forms of Federal Statutory Publication
	Introduction to State and Federal Statutes
	Updating Federal and State Statutes
Legislative History	Federal Legislative History Research	Legislative History Research	Legislative Process & History
	Research Federal Legislative History
Administrative/Executive	Attorney General Materials		Administrative Law Research
	Internal Agency Materials
	Introduction and Sources of Authority for Administrative Law
	Research Federal Administrative Regulations
	Research Federal Executive Orders
	Rulemaking: Federal Register and CFR
Foreign/International Law	Customary International Law	International Law	International Law
	Introduction to Foreign Legal Research
	U.S. Treaty Research
Internet Research Generally	Evaluating Web Sites
	Internet Legal Resources - Free Resources
Cost	Cost of Legal Research	Cost-Effective Research
Subjects	Selected topics: check individual websites for specific areas covered